‘Saudi Cables release is just one tenth of what we have’ – WikiLeaks to RT

Journalists have established the authenticity of the first tranche of the top secret Saudi documents published by WikiLeaks, as Saudi Arabia has warned not to distribute them, spokesperson for the WikiLeaks told RT adding that ‘it’s just the beginning.’

“We are seeing how the oil money is being used to increase
influence of Saudi Arabia which is substantial of course - this
is ally of the US and the UK. And since this spring it has been
waging war in neighboring Yemen,” Icelandic investigative
journalist and spokesperson for the WikiLeaks organization
Kristinn Hrafnsson told RT.

On Friday, the whistleblowing website released the first tranche
of nearly 70,000 secret government files, providing an insight
into the kingdom’s interior and foreign policies. Hrafnsson said
that this is “only one tenth of the documents that we have
which, will be released in the coming weeks.”

WikiLeaks said that it
plans to publish about half a million documents, which include
communiqués from the Saudi Foreign Ministry, as well as ‘top
secret’ reports from the kingdom’s intelligence agency and
Ministry of Interior.

“Let me remind you that this is just a beginning,” he
said adding that the documents are in Arabic “so it will take
longer for media to work on the material and develop
stories.”

On Saturday, in response to the publications Riyadh has urged its
citizens not to distribute “documents that might be
faked.” However, the statement made by the Foreign Ministry
on its Twitter account did not deny the documents’ authenticity.

“It’s interesting that they suggest that they are fabricated
documents … without mentioning a single one. On the other hand of
course journalists have already established the authenticity of
many of the documents they have been working on…” Hrafnsson
said.

The kingdom takes a systematic approach to maintaining the
country's positive image on the international stage, the site
claimed adding that Riyadh controls it by monitoring media and
“buying loyalties from Australia to Canada and everywhere in
between.”

The ‘Saudi Cables’ revealed the “extensive efforts to monitor
and co-opt Arab media, making sure to correct any deviations in
regional coverage of Saudi Arabia and Saudi-related
matters.”

“Saudi Arabia's strategy for co-opting Arab media takes two
forms, corresponding to the "carrot and stick" approach, referred
to in the documents as "neutralization" and "containment." The
approach is customized depending on the market and the media in
question,” it said.

As an example of the latter two approaches, the report presents
the Saudi purchasing thousands of subscriptions in targeted
publications, which become politically loyal to the state.

“A document listing the subscriptions that needed renewal by
1 January 2010 details a series of contributory sums meant for
two dozen publications in Damascus, Abu Dhabi, Beirut, Kuwait,
Amman and Nouakchott. The sums range from $500 to 9,750 Kuwaiti
Dinars ($33,000).”

The report said that the sum of the ‘bribe’ depends on how well
the country’s state of affairs are.

“These range from small but vital sums of around $2000/year
to developing country media outlets – a figure the Guinean News
Agency "urgently needs" as "it would solve many problems that the
agency is facing" – to millions of dollars, as in the case of
Lebanese right-wing television station MTV.”

Among other issues, WikiLeaks said it has concerns with how Saudi
Arabia influenced media during the "Arab Spring" in 2011.
According to the leaked files Riyadh “gave financial support
to influential media institutions in Tunisia,” the
birthplace of the movement which resulted in several governments
being overthrown.

Saudi Arabia, the world’s second largest oil producer and largest
exporter, is a major player in the Organization of Petroleum
Exporting Countries (OPEC) that controls oil production and
prices on the global market.

The ultraconservative kingdom has also been widely criticized by
the international community for its disreputable human rights
record. Last Monday Saudi Arabia performed its 100th public
execution of the year.